Unconventional
by Jim Munday


There are many conventions in bridge; some, of course, better than others. I see a lot of players at the club, newer players especially, playing too many conventions. The number of conventions, or even which ones, are not important --- it IS important that you and your partner fully understand the ones you do play. For those learning the game, I would recommend using very few conventions in the beginning, then adding conventions gradually as the initial ones become "old hat". When I started playing, my mom and I played just Stayman and Weak 2s, and managed just fine.

Conventions are not necessary to win. In an intriguing experiment; a group of top pros, led by Brazilian internationalist Gabriel Chagas challenged a team led by Jeff Meckstroth - Eric Rodwell to a match. The Chagas team would use "natural" methods i.e. very few conventions; the other team could play whatever conventions they liked. The ideas was to show that natural bidding could succeed just as well as the modern conventional style. The natural team held their own, though they eventually suffered a narrow defeat.

Here are a few sequences from basic conventions that you and your partner should understand. You can assign any meaning you prefer to these sequences, but you both should agree what that meaning is. Our opponents had this sequence recently:

1N-2C:-2C:-2C:

The 1st 3 bids are fairly standard but would you know what your partner had if they bid 2H over 2D? There is no right answer, but there's definitely a wrong one -- not knowing what partner is showing.

Another common situation:

1N-2C:-2N

Playing Jacoby transfers the 1N bidder will normally bid 2C:. A 3C: is pretty intuitive, but what do other bids mean? To maximize the benefits of conventions; it is important to not only know what the 1st bid means, but what the follow-up bids mean as well. Knowing what sort of information further bid should show comes with experience.

My last example is not a specific sequence, but a general situation. I see a lot of confusion with interference over 1N openings. There are dozens of notrump conventions; I won't discuss the merits of any here, but there's more to it than just writing Hamilton or DONT on a convention card (as examples). Do you play the same system over weak NT? In balancing seat? By a passed hand? What are you minimum suit lengths for making a 2 suited overcall? High card range? You should know the answers to all these questions and many others as well.

Understanding the conventions you play; rather than playing more of the them will greatly improve your game.